


anchor

by agentcalliope



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Bus Kids - Freeform, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friendship, Gen, I AM SO EMOTIONAL YOU GUYS, Love, canon compliant as of 4x15
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 07:27:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9873332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentcalliope/pseuds/agentcalliope
Summary: He’s always been her anchor, but this time, they’re sinking and she’s forgotten how to swim.(Daisy and Jemma meet Fitz in the Framework and Jemma wonder's if this time he's taken her breath and left her at the bottom of the sea.)





	

 

She doesn’t utter a single word as Daisy begins to speak, because mostly she’s afraid of the lump in her throat and the tears that threaten her eyes. She doesn’t even look at Daisy, but she fumbles underneath the table for her hand and when she finds it she holds it and she holds it tight.

And Daisy grips hers.

 

And Jemma stares at Fitz and Fitz stares back, his aviators mirroring her own tired, haunted, reflection.

 

(But Jemma doesn’t need to see his eyes to see the emptiness in them. The truth that lies in them, that Fitz doesn’t know who _she_ is. In this reality that’s supposed to be reality where they have no pain and no suffering and no regret-- he doesn’t know who she is.

And if Fitz doesn’t know who she is, who is she without him?)

 

“Nice place.” Fitz huffs, fingering the menu with his lips curled in displease. He shoves the menu away and leans back into the booth, stretching out his arms and crossing his legs in the most un-Fitz action she’s ever seen anyone do. “Alright, girls. You’ve been harassing me for days and I’ve finally agreed to meet. What is _so_ important that you must talk to me about?”

 

She wants to scream. She wants to scream because this time he’s taken her last breath and he’s left her at the bottom of the ocean to drown. He’s always been her anchor but this time they’re sinking and she’s forgotten how to swim.

 

Daisy squeezes her hand, and Jemma’s reminded she’s not alone, even as she sits across from the person she loves who doesn’t know or love her at all. It’s enough to break her.

It’s enough for her to grit her teeth and narrow her eyes.

 

Daisy clears her throat and begins with the practiced, memorized speech they’ve rehearsed a thousand times but still wasn’t enough.

“Okay, Fitz--”

“Leo.”

 _Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong,_ wrong _._

“Leo…” Daisy slowly pronounces, rolling the foreign syllables on her tongue. “What I’m about to say is gonna sound crazy, okay? You’re probably not going to believe me but it’s true. It’s all true. And it’s really important for you to listen.”

Daisy sighs, looks left and right at the other customers in the diner and then bends forward.

Fitz sighs for an entirely different reason, and leans over to hear what she has to say.

 

Jemma stays where she is.

 

“This isn’t real. None of it is. You’ve been kidnapped and you need to help us find _you_.”

 

Even with the thousands of times they’ve rehearsed that weren’t enough, it still sounds ridiculous but they don’t have a choice.

They wait for him to say something, say anything at all—

And then he begins to laugh.

“You’re right, it sounds crazy and it _is_ crazy.” he shrugs and reverts back to leaning back in his seat. “Besides, I have everything I’ve ever wanted, so if “this isn’t real” then maybe I don’t want to leave.”

 

Jemma wishes that she would just drown already.

 

Fitz stands up and puffs his jacket collar, glaring down at them from behind his darken frames. “Thanks for wasting my time. Have a nice day.”

He brushes past them and Jemma’s sinking into her seat, into the ocean, and she’s forgotten how to swim but she hasn’t forgotten him. And she reaches out and clutches his hand.

 

His hand is warm. It’s warm and real and this is Fitz no matter how much unlike Fitz he is.

He freezes, looking down at their hands and then peering at her. He isn’t tearing his hand from hers, and that’s enough for her.

“Come back to me.”

 

And then she lets go.

 

(and then he stays)

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to em and chelsey for quickly looking this over hahahahahahhaa everything hurts


End file.
